1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to cellular wireless communication systems; and more particularly to the processing of data communications received by a wireless terminal in such a cellular wireless communication system.
2. Related Art
Cellular wireless communication systems support wireless communication services in many populated areas of the world. While cellular wireless communication systems were initially constructed to service voice communications, they are now called upon to support data communications as well. The demand for data communication services has exploded with the acceptance and widespread use of the Internet. While data communications have historically been serviced via wired connections, cellular wireless users now demand that their wireless units also support data communications. Many wireless subscribers now expect to be able to “surf” the Internet, access their email, and perform other data communication activities using their cellular phones, wireless personal data assistants, wirelessly linked notebook computers, and/or other wireless devices. The demand for wireless communication system data communications will only increase with time. Thus, cellular wireless communication systems are currently being created/modified to service these burgeoning data communication demands.
Cellular wireless networks include a “network infrastructure” that wirelessly communicates with wireless terminals within a respective service coverage area. The network infrastructure typically includes a plurality of base stations dispersed throughout the service coverage area, each of which supports wireless communications within a respective cell (or set of sectors). The base stations couple to base station controllers (BSCs), with each BSC serving a plurality of base stations. Each BSC couples to a mobile switching center (MSC). Each BSC also typically directly or indirectly couples to the Internet.
In operation, each base station communicates with a plurality of wireless terminals operating in its cell/sectors. A BSC coupled to the base station routes voice communications between the MSC and the serving base station. The MSC routes the voice communication to another MSC or to the PSTN. BSCs route data communications between a servicing base station and a packet data network that may include or couple to the Internet. Transmissions from base stations to wireless terminals are referred to as “forward link” transmissions while transmissions from wireless terminals to base stations are referred to as “reverse link” transmissions. The volume of data transmitted on the forward link typically exceeds the volume of data transmitted on the reverse link. Such is the case because data users typically issue commands to request data from data sources, e.g., web servers, and the web servers provide the data to the wireless terminals.
Wireless links between base stations and their serviced wireless terminals typically operate according to one (or more) of a plurality of operating standards. These operating standards define the manner in which the wireless link may be allocated, setup, serviced and torn down. One popular cellular standard is the Global System for Mobile telecommunications (GSM) standard. The GSM standard, or simply GSM, is predominant in Europe and is in use around the globe. While GSM originally serviced only voice communications, it has been modified to also service data communications. GSM General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) operations and the Enhanced Data rates for GSM (or Global) Evolution (EDGE) operations coexist with GSM by sharing the channel bandwidth, slot structure, and slot timing of the GSM standard. The GPRS operations and the EDGE operations may also serve as migration paths for other standards as well, e.g., IS-136 and Pacific Digital Cellular (PDC).
In order for EDGE to provide increased data rates within a 200 kHz GSM channel, it employs a higher order modulation, 8-PSK (octal phase shift keying), in addition to GSM's standard Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) modulation. EDGE allows for nine different (autonomously and rapidly selectable) air interface formats, known as Modulation and Coding schemes (MCSs), with varying degrees of error control protection. Low MCS modes, (MCS 1-4) use GMSK (low data rate) while high MCS modes (MCS 5-9) use 8-PSK (high data rate) modulation for over the air transmissions, depending upon the instantaneous demands of the application and the operating conditions.
EDGE uses the higher order 8-PSK and the GMSK modulations and a family of MCSs for each GSM radio channel time slot, so that each user connection may adaptively determine the best MCS setting for the particular radio propagation conditions and data access requirements of the user. In addition, the “best” air interface mode is enhanced with a technique called incremental redundancy (IR), whereby packets are transmitted first with initially selected MCS mode and puncturing, and then subsequent packets are transmitted with additional redundancy using differing puncturing patterns and potentially different MCS modes within a common MCS family. Rapid feedback between the base station and wireless terminal may restore the previous acceptable air interface state, which is presumably at an acceptable level but with minimum required coding and with minimum bandwidth and power drain.
The processing and memory requirements for IR service are severe. Decoding is performed for each received block and, if the decoding is not successful, the received block must be stored until it is combined with a subsequently received block. This storage and combination process may be repeated for a number of iterations. Because IR operations may be in process for a large number of blocks, the storage and indexing requirements for IR may be significant.
Traditionally, the Radio Link Control protocol layer (RLC) was responsible for initiating retransmission of a block while the Physical Layer (PHY) was responsible for decoding. Typically, the RLC and the PHY were implemented in separate processing devices, e.g., a first processor implementing the RLC, e.g., RISC processor, and a second processor implementing the PHY, e.g. DSP. Many of the operations supported by the wireless terminal justified this split in processing duties. However, when IR is implemented, the split in processing duties burdens each of the processors with messaging and data sharing operations simply in support of IR. These processing and memory requirements adversely affect the performance of wireless terminals servicing EDGE. Thus, there exists a need in the art for improved performance in supporting EDGE IR.